DVD and Blu-ray Releases: January 31, 2017
Sean Brickley
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We have a total of ten releases for you this week, folks. Almost all of them are classics, ranging back to the 1960s, so let’s just take it chronologically.
Coming up first are DVD re-releases for At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul and This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse. Both of these can also be found in the Coffin Joe Trilogy along with Embodiment Of Evil in our Collections section.
Next up is the 1970s. Also in our Collections section is a double feature containing Blood Mania and Point Of Terror. This Limited Edition Blu-ray covers 1970 and 1971 respectively.
Our last classics represent the 1980s. If you’ve read my articles long enough you know that this is my favorite decade, and it has some good choices this week. The two bigger names are the Poltergeist II: The Other Side and Poltergeist III Collector’s Edition Blu-rays. If you’ve been wondering if God is still in his Holy Temmmmmmple, now’s your chance to find out… in HD!
We’ve also got 1980’s Don’t Answer The Phone!, 1988’s Lair Of The White Worm and rounding the decade out, Randy Quaid in Parents.
Be sure to check back next week as we have at least 15 titles to discuss then, and again on Valentine’s Day when there will be almost 30 releases to talk about. As always, pleasant viewing.
MOVIES
At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (1964)
Starring:
José Mojica Marins, Magda Mei, Nivaldo Lima
Synopsis:
Coffin Joe makes his film debut in At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma), the first installment of the Coffin Joe Trilogy. Coffin Joe (known as Zé do Caixão, and portrayed by director José Mojica Marins) is a mysterious undertaker in a small Brazilian town. He frowns upon religion and is bitter because his wife cannot bear him a child. After violently killing his wife with a venomous spider, the murder, mutilation and blasphemy escalates as Joe stops at nothing to find a new woman to continue his evil bloodline. The town’s gypsy has a warning for Coffin Joe… the spirits of those he killed may return to claim his soul! Will Coffin Joe escape the wrath of the dead and finally get the child he’s always wanted, or will unholy terror claim him for his hideous crimes?
At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul is celebrated as the first true horror film ever made in Brazil and is extremely graphic and frightening for its time. Startling, atmospheric and incredibly gruesome, this film is followed by This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse and Embodiment Of Evil (all available from Synapse Films).
Don’t Answer the Phone! (1980)
Starring:
Nicholas Worth, James Westmoreland, Flo Lawrence, Ben Frank, Denise Galik
Synopsis:
Vietnam vet Kirk Smith (Nicholas Worth) spends his days photographing pretty girls. He spends his nights strangling them. With the LAPD baffled by what seems to be a series of random killings, radio psychiatrist Lindsay Gale begins receiving menacing calls from Smith, who then sets his murderous sights on her patients, and soon Gale herself…
One time director Robert Hammer’s gripping and suspenseful early slasher, Don’t Answer The Phone!, blends unnerving psychological drama with brutal violence, complimented by a career performance from Nicholas Worth and atmospheric cinematography by James L. Carter (Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3).
Vinegar Syndrome presents this genre film masterpiece freshly restored in 4k from its recently discovered 35mm original camera negative, and looking better than it ever has on home video.
The Lair Of The White Worm (1988)
Starring:
Hugh Grant, Amanda Donohoe, Catherine Oxenberg
Synopsis:
An English nobleman links a skull and a dragon legend to a vampire temptress. Directed by Ken Russell. From Bram Stoker’s novel.
Parents (1989)
Starring:
Randy Quaid, Mary Beth Hurt
Synopsis:
Middle-class parents introduce their pint-size son to cannibalism in 1950s suburbia.
Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) (Collector’s Edition)
Starring:
Heather O’Rourke, JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Oliver Robins
Synopsis:
An American Indian helps a broke and homeless family, once again prey to a poltergeist.
Poltergeist III (1988) (Collector’s Edition)
Starring:
Tom Skerritt, Nancy Allen, Heather O’Rourke, Lara Flynn Boyle
Synopsis:
Destructive demons follow a little girl sent to live with her aunt and uncle in a Chicago high-rise.
This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse (1967)
Starring:
José Mojica Marins, Tina Wohlers, Antonio Fracari
Synopsis:
This sequel to the ground-breaking Brazilian horror masterpiece, At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul brings back the demented murderous caretaker, Coffin Joe (known as Zé do Caixão, and portrayed by director José Mojica Marins). Surviving the terrors of the first film, Coffin Joe is now joined by a hunchbacked assistant named Bruno to help him on his unholy quest for the perfect bride. After kidnapping and torturing women and submitting them to sadistic trials, Joe thinks he’s finally found the right woman to bear him a child. Unfortunately, things don t go as planned and Joe suffers horrible nightmares from killing a pregnant woman. What follows is a hallucinatory descent into the Hellish underworld as Joe struggles to survive his blasphemous visions and the wrath of the local villagers.
This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse is even more brutal than its predecessor, and contains the controversial color Hell sequence. This film is the second installment in the Coffin Joe Trilogy, and is followed by Embodiment Of Evil (which is also available from Synapse Films).
Wax Mask (1997)
Starring:
Robert Hossein, Romina Mondello, Riccardo Serventi Longhi, Gabriella Giorgelli, Umberto Balli
Synopsis:
There’s a new attraction in town that’s not for the fainthearted. A wax museum that recreates, for the thrills of a paying audience, some of the most gruesome murders ever committed by human hands.
A young man makes a bet with his friends that he can spend an entire night in the museum but he is found dead the morning after. Who is the savage slayer? The police are unable to come up with a reason or a clue to identify the murderer. Weirdly enough, the museum starts featuring new murder scenes as the killing spree increases. Is the metal-clawed killer that haunted Paris years ago, prowling the streets of Rome, looking for fresh flesh and blood?
COLLECTIONS
Blood Mania / Point of Terror
Starring:
Maria De Aragon, Leslie Simms, Vicki Peters, Dyanne Thorne, Jacqueline Dalya
Synopsis:
Vinegar Syndrome presents a lurid double dose of 70s sleaze from one of the most enigmatic leading men of the era: Peter Carpenter.
Please note: this first pressing of 3,000 units includes an exclusive bonus DVD featuring rare TV versions of both films!
First, in Robert Vincent O’Neill’s Blood Mania, Carpenter stars as Craig, lover of the unstable Victoria (Maria De Aragon), who’s very keen to see her wealthy father reach an early grave so she can inherit his fortune. Deciding to speed up the process, she concocts a diabolical plan for his demise, only to be met with some unexpected obstacles… Playing like a sex and violence drenched soap opera, Blood Mania is a mind-bending drive-in oddity that keeps you guessing until its final shocking twist.
Then, in Alex Nicol’s Point Of Terror., Carpenter headlines as Tony Trelos, a lounge singer who mysteriously wakes up on Andrea’s (Dyanne Thorne) private beach. The two quickly begin an affair, but things get complicated when Andrea decides to murder her wheelchair bound husband and Tony starts sleeping with Andrea’s pretty stepdaughter… With its Tom Jones inspired musical interludes and DP Robert Maxwell’s Bava-esque lighting scheme, Point Of Terror plays like a candy colored acid trip into the world of vanity themed exploitation.
Vinegar Syndrome proudly brings both of these jaw dropping classics to Blu-ray, newly restored from their original negatives and featuring their much sought after alternative TV versions (exclusive to this first pressing of 3,000 units)!
The Coffin Joe Trilogy
Starring:
José Mojica Marins, Jece Valadão, Milhem Cortaz
Synopsis:
Unholy undertaker, sinful savant, denizen of dreams and hallucinations… Coffin Joe, with his trademark top hat, black cape and long talon-like fingernails, is a horror legend across the world. Portrayed by prolific Brazilian director José Mojica Marins, Coffin Joe has been immortalized in films, TV programs, comic books and popular songs. Marins has a strangely personal filmmaking style that can only be compared to an unholy blend of Russ Meyer, Mario Bava and Luis Buñuel. Synapse Films is proud to present The Coffin Joe Trilogy, a three film DVD collection containing At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul, This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse and Embodiment Of Evil. This trilogy of films contains the classic story of Coffin Joe’s descent into madness and violence as he murders and tortures men and women in his unholy quest to find the perfect bride.
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